Stream-ripping: The music piracy of the streaming era

Music piracy has decreased in recent years. With the introduction of free streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora, fewer people are turning to illegal sources to obtain music they want to listen to. But that doesn’t mean music piracy is eliminated. Rather, the most common methods of piracy have just taken on different forms. For example, stream ripping is pulling music from a streaming source, such as YouTube. It is now the most common process by which users are illegally obtaining music.